


colors stained upon your skin

by stellaisnotamermaid



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:01:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21841840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellaisnotamermaid/pseuds/stellaisnotamermaid
Summary: in a world where soulmates are real, everybody has a unique color that splashes upon others' skin when they touch. everybody except for sorcerers, that is—theirs was golden, shining like the sun.in a world where soulmates are real, royalty and a few select others tend to hide their colors by wearing iron. in a world where soulmates are real, your soulmate's colors stain your skin, and stay there forever.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 51
Kudos: 1100





	colors stained upon your skin

**Author's Note:**

> tbh i wrote this in like an hour two days ago then cleaned it up over the past two days and there may be errors bc no beta and I'm TIRED. i need to sleep. if it's after 12am, please put your electronic device down and try to sleep (or get out of bed if you can't sleep so that your body doesn't associate being awake with your bed).

His skin was wholly unblemished. Across his entire body, there wasn't even the tiniest bit of color.

Sure, he had tan lines, a few freckles here and there, maybe a couple moles, but there wasn't a single splash of color showing that somebody loved him, not even faded marks that showed that there were people around him who even mildly cared.

It was the first thing his father drilled into his head. Don't let anybody touch you, don't let them get close; they only want you for your crown. He'd married for true love, of course, before it was common etiquette to hide your colors with iron. Now everybody was seeking to steal his throne.

(Even Uther didn't touch Arthur other than a clap on the back after a fight, or when he came back from a hunt. It was the principle of it, he said; if people saw marks on Arthur, they'd think it was okay to touch him.)

Once upon a time, he'd been close to Gwen, but her brilliant purple splashed all over Lancelot, and not a single drop stained his skin.

The first time a color lit up his skin, Merlin was tackling him and pulling him away from a knife that had been sent hurtling at his head. He normally wore gloves, so Arthur hadn't bothered to check his arms where his skin wasn't covered by his shirt. Somehow, he never noticed the fleck of gold on the back of his arm. If anybody else saw it, they didn't say a word. Nearly everybody had the unspoken rule to ignore if a mark showed up golden since the colors were designated at birth, and that meant that sorcerers didn't have a choice as to whether or not they had magic.

(His shirts normally covered his arms, at the request of his father—in case somebody decided to touch him—due to the fact that Arthur wasn't ready to be married off yet; when the time for  _ that _ came, he'd be given an iron crown, never to be taken off.)

Then Merlin was his manservant, and touched him all the time—only on his back, where Arthur couldn't see what color he left. All he knew was that Merlin's hands were stained a fiery crimson. Arthur never wanted that color to fade.

(Then he couldn't see it anymore; when Merlin came to help him, he had gloves on. The only time he'd seen Merlin without gloves, he was brewing a potion for Gaius. He'd had a small iron ring on. Arthur assumed he'd found a sweetheart in the lower town, and that's where he ducked off to whenever Gaius said he was at the tavern. He wasn't sure why the idea of that left a dull pain in his chest, like he'd been kicked by a horse.)

When Arthur asked him what color he'd left, Merlin froze and stuttered out a response, saying that that was for him to know and for Arthur to find out. Then he rushed out of the room, saying that he forgot that Gaius needed some herbs.

(An excuse; to get away from Arthur, or to see his lover?)

Arthur tried to touch Merlin in passing to find out, but he was always caught before he could touch his skin. Merlin grinned at him knowingly and ducked away, like it was some sort of game.

(Whenever that happened frequently, he noticed that Merlin's smile faded and was replaced with an emotion he couldn't quite name. Gaius always seemed tense whenever it happened in his presence.)

Morgana had never had a color on her either—at least, not since childhood; when she'd gotten to Camelot, her skin had been bare, and she'd refused to let anybody touch her. So when he brushed up against her and came away tainted gold, his whole world stuttered to a stop. Footsteps sounded around the corner, and Arthur grabbed her and dragged her into a random room, locking the door behind them.

"Arthur, what—" she said, then noticed his hands, practically glowing in the dim light. Her voice fell silent, and then—"That's not possible. I don't—I don't have magic."

Arthur studied her face, and decided that she hadn't known. "Your dreams," he suggested. "Do they always come true?"

"No," she whispered. "Only my nightmares."

(And if the pain and fear in her voice weren't enough to make him realize how wrong his father was, her ignorance at the fact that she'd even  _ had  _ magic in the first place was.)

The next day, he brought her midnight blue silk gloves, laced with iron thread to block the transmission of color—standard practice in most royal households so that soulmates didn't interfere with politics, but only tradition once somebody was ready to marry. She stared at them apprehensively, as though expecting him to lash out at her, then slipped them on and didn't say another thing about it.

Uther noticed the gloves almost immediately, and brought up the topic of marriage. She seemed pained, but that was the only viable reason as to why she would hide her colors—she was ready to be married and didn't want soulmates to get in the way—so she kept up the façade.

He told her he was proud of her, and held a feast so she could meet possible suitors. Several princesses were brought as well, but Uther was not ready to marry Arthur to somebody whose alliance may not have been strategically as good an idea as others.

Arthur wasn't sure what had happened, but the next thing he knew, he was in the forest and had a mixture of mauve and gold stained across his arms. Merlin was next to him, pale and silent, and one of the ladies who had been invited was sobbing in the grass next to them.

When Merlin realized that Arthur was awake, he seemed to pale even further—something Arthur hadn't realized was possible.

"What happened?"

At his words, the lady burst into renewed tears.

Merlin glared at her, then simply said, "You were enchanted again."

When they got back to the castle, it was practically abandoned. They sent the lady to her room unpunished other than a threat—she'd been wrecked as it was, and had only done it because it seemed like she had no other option; her father planned to marry her off, and his favorite suitor was awful.

"Is your color mauve?" Arthur asked, glancing at his arms where the color had faded away.

Merlin shook his head jerkily, and went about cleaning up Arthur's chambers for the night.

"Then who else was there? I only saw you and Lady Josephine, and I'm assuming hers was golden." He ignored the fact that the gold clung to his skin, refusing to disappear.

"She used a potion, not a spell. She had her servant slip something in your drink while I was helping your father."

"So she was mauve?"

Merlin nodded, refusing to look Arthur in the eye.

"Was there anybody else there?"

Merlin froze, then shook his head, refusing to face Arthur.

He toed out of his boots and walked over to Merlin. "So if I touched you…"

Merlin didn't move a muscle as one of Arthur's hands loosely wrapped around his arm, the other curling around his waist.

"... My hand would be golden?" He slid his hand away, watching the red blossom across Merlin's bicep. His fingers  _ glowed _ where he'd touched Merlin.

He didn't move for a long time, and then—"Arthur I'm sorry," he said. "I swear, I—"

"Merlin, shut up."

He did, then tried to twist around so that he could see Arthur's face. Arthur didn't move.

"I'm not mad at you. Do I wish you had told me? Yes, but I understand why you didn't. Do I wish that you wouldn't  _ risk your life  _ by being here? Yes."

"You hate magic," Merlin said, but it sounded like a question.

_ "My father  _ hates magic. And yes, he raised me, but… you're not the only person I care about who has it, and I refuse to believe that either of you are evil, so it cannot be."

Normally, the colors on his arms would have faded by now, but they were  _ brighter _ than they'd been earlier, which meant—

"My hands are still red." Merlin admitted, taking off his gloves—they didn't have any iron in them; they were just regular wool, as the process to incorporate metal in fabric was quite difficult and therefore expensive.

Arthur's breath caught, and a fierce blush crossed over the part of Merlin's face that Arthur could see.

It was almost as bright as his hands, which were a deep crimson from helping Arthur dress nearly every day.

"You knew," Arthur accused, letting his hand fall from where it rested on Merlin's arm.

He turned around in confusion.

"Arthur, what?"

"You didn't tell me. You could have told me."

"I don't—what? You said you understood."

"Not the  _ magic,  _ you idiot." Arthur said voice hushed. He set his hand on Merlin's cheek.  _ "This." _

Merlin's mouth fell open in a silent  _ O _

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Merlin reached out, careful not to touch Arthur's face or skin that couldn't be covered by clothes. "You're the crown prince," he said simply, voice broken. "Besides, you never wanted to—"

"I never wanted to? I never wanted to what? Talk to you? Hold your hand?  _ Kiss  _ you?"

Merlin nodded, turned his face away. Arthur's hand fell from its place on his cheek. "I'm sorry—I'll go. I can get George to be your manservant, you won't have to see me."

_ "Mer _ lin," Arthur said. "What if I don't want you to?"

Merlin turned back to him in confusion, and Arthur's hand found its place on his hip; the other settled on his jaw, pointer finger resting just below his ear.

"Don't go." Arthur said, staring at Merlin's eyes. "Please."

Merlin nodded slightly, and Arthur relished in the bright red that blossomed under his hand, then threw his arms around Merlin. He stiffened, then raised his arms to hug Arthur back.

Arthur pulled back and looked at Merlin again, about to ask him if he could—Merlin's eyes flicked down to his lips, and Arthur moved impossibly closer, letting Merlin decide if he wanted to close the distance.

He did.

**Author's Note:**

> also I'd like to clarify that when morgana moved there she was little so she didn't really remember what her color was; she didn't touch people because she didn't want to see what color people other than her family had (since she missed them).


End file.
